1889-] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. ' l8l 



eaten in large quantities for days together. Proper experiments have 

 not been conducted with the others yet. Leucocrinum montanum is said 

 to be very fatal to sheep after the fruit has developed. It grows close in 

 the grass, and its narrow grass-like leaves are not easily avoided by stock. 

 This plant occurs in various parts of the territory, is very common in 

 Lewis and Clarke county, near Helena, and in the Sand Coulee region of 

 Cascade county. Fritillaria pudica is almost the first plant to flower in 

 spring. Before the grass is green horses and sheep often nip off the 

 leaves. The scaly bulb is somewhat acrid to the taste. Zygadenus ele- 

 gans does not flower so early but sends up its long "grassy" leaves at the 

 same time. Sheep eat much of this plant, even nipping off the panicles 

 when they appear. The whole plant is acrid, but the deep-set bulb is 

 strongly so. 



So many sheep, cattle and horses die yearly in all the western territo 

 ries, presumably through eating poisonous plants, that western botanists 

 should do all in their power to investigate the matter. Not long ago it 

 was reported that a new disease had broken out among horses ranging 

 on the northern foothills of the Great Belt Mountains. The disease first 

 affects digestion only, and victims rapidly lose flesh and get very weak. 

 Soon the renal regions are involved, and although sufferers seldom die 

 they as seldom appear to fully recover; the back remains so weak that 

 no load can be borne or drawn. One man has thirty fine-looking horses 

 affected in this way. As usual, the cause is attributed to "some weed 

 they get."— F. W. Anderson, Great Falls, Montana. 



New Mosses.— Descriptions and drawings of the following new species 

 and of many new varieties, by F. Renauld and J. Cardot, will be issued 

 shortly in the Botanical Gazette: 



Dicranella Langloisii. — Louisiana (A. B. Langlois). 



Dicranum consobrinum. — Minnesota. 



Didymodon Hendersoni.— Oregon (L. F. Henderson). 



Grimmia tenerrima. — " 



Coscinodon Renaxddi. — Kansas (Henry). 

 Ulota glabra.— Oregon (L. F. Henderson). 



Hendersoni. — " " 



Orthotrichum productipes.— Oregon (L. F. Henderson). 

 Bryum crassum. — " 



Hendersoni. — " 



extenuatum. " 



Oregon (L. F. 



Fontinalis Kindbergii.— Vancouver (John Macounj. 



Henderson). 

 subbiformis.— Oregon (L. F. Henderson). 

 Brachythecium Idahense. — Idaho (Leiberg). t 



Microihamnium aberrans.— " " A very interesting moss, of 



a tropical genus, with the facies of M. acrorrhizum (Hsch.) from Brazil, 

 but distinct from all the known species of the genus in the broad, lax 

 cells of the areolation. 



